Exciting News!

Here is what is going on in my world today...laundry, relaxing, reading...etc. My sister Lynn is working a lot harder than me though! She's in the hospital having her baby girl, today!!

She looks about ready don't you think!?! Sorry, Lynn, I suppose this isnt the greatest picture of you but I am proud of you for being brave and for being a mommy!! Yay!

She's having lots of good contractions! Woo woo!! We are cheering for you!

Still working on it...

So I am still working on this wall hanging for Lynn and she is still working on starting the labor process. I think I got the better deal of the two! Here are the finished tiles and I layed them out in my prefered configuration.

This configuration happens to be 12"x36." When I looked online to price out a stretched canvas of those dimensions places were charging $35 dollars! Wow! I thought I could do better and it turns out I could. I went to Big Lots and lo and behold...what did I find!?!? This beauty...

So, I realize it's not the most attractive piece of art out there but it doesn't matter a bit because it is stretched canvas exactly 12"x36" and it was a bargain of only $10! Then after a trip to the art store to get the matte medium (with a 40% off coupon thank you very much) I am home again with this project. This is how it looks so far. I am going on faith that the matte medium really does dry clear! **crossing my fingers!**

Progress

So this little art project has been a lot of fun these past couple of days. Any of you who know me well will know that I always get crafty right around finals time. Apparently Spring Term is no exception! Haha. Don't worry though because in a week or so I will be back to my non-creative, art defunct self! Here is the progress so far...

As you can see there are 3 tiles that are still empty. That is mostly because I am rapidly running out of ideas!! Finals week must be approaching its end! If you can come up with any other ideas I appreciate it! The theme is obviously girly things. :)

These squares will be mounted on a canvas and I am going to cover it with a clear coat.

May and June

Today Grandma Harris requested an update on our blog. I had no idea my wonderful husband had already done it yesterday but this will be my scoop. Since the end of April and graduation we have been really busy! Mitchell started right in on his Master's degree without more than just the weekend for a break. He is working hard and making progress. I had planned on taking a humanitarian nursing trip to Peru for 4 weeks in May and the first part of June but it was canceled at the last minute. I was so relieved! Honestly, the whole trip was poorly planned and was kind of a nightmare for me. So instead of going to Peru for a month I went to Washington DC for a week! It was amazing! We were a group of 13 nursing students with 2 instructors studying veterans healthcare. It was very interesting and I can't wait to go back to that wonderful city! I will include a few pictures of the highlights from DC with this post.

This is most of our group with 3 World War II veterans! The cute little guy in the front was wearing his actual uniform that he wore in the war! They were so sweet!

This is us in front of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. This is where active duty soldiers are treated when they get injured or sick while on assignment. Most of the patients were my age or younger and were facing some big life changes. We got to visit the amputee unit, that was very sobering but also good to see that the military takes good care of the brave soldiers. I was amazed that most of the soldiers who had lost limbs were very positive and optimistic.

The Washington DC Temple is gorgeous!!

Monday is the last day of class for Spring term and we are both happy to have somewhat of a break! Well, of course, Mitchell will still be working on his Master's so I guess I am happy to get a break from school!

A few Saturdays ago Mitchell took me to the Thanksgiving Point Gardens at my request! They were beautiful and we had a great time enjoying the beauty of nature together. Here are some pics that really don't do this garden justice. It is about 55 acres of gorgeous manicured earth! If you are ever near Lehi, UT in the Spring or Summer it is definitely worth the time!

My sister, Lynn, is due to have a baby any day so we are all awaiting the arrival of Summer Lynn Colvin!! Thanks to Aunt Jennifer for the adorable and fun idea...I have a craft that I will be making for Summer's nursery. I will try to track the progress of the project on this blog. :)

Here are the materials for this adorable project! At least I hope my version turns out as adorable as Jennifer's!

Life is fabulous! My other exciting news is that in August I am flying to Dallas, TX to play with my best friend that I haven't seen in 2 years! Lindsey, I can't wait!!

Summer

This is just a quick little update between classes. I'm excited for "Spring" semester to end so that I can really be off from school. !!!! I'm honestly getting a little burnt out, especially because I have no thesis topic and the classes that I'm taking are very time consuming. On the bright side I've learned alot this term (I can do Fourier and Laplace transforms now!) and it's about to end just after this coming finals "week" (by week I mean 2 days).

On brighter news Melanie and I finally got ourselves into gear and went camping! In Spanish fork cannon there is a so called 'primitive' camp ground. By primitive they must have meant no elecricity or room service, because there was a steel fire pit, a clearing with soft bark layed down, and a steel bench under a concrete pavilion all about 100 yards from the parking lot. Yeah, we roughed it big time.
We felt like cave men. Melanie set up the tent and cleared the camp while I got the fire going somehow without a knife (turns out that bark makes excellent kindling). We then made S'mores and tried to get to sleep all night on the hard ground because we didn't have a sleeping pad. I'm pounding my chest as we speek.